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In the early 1980s we wrote
articles predicting pet
superstores would grow in number
and add grooming services. We
were bluntly met with jabs at
our credibility, even laughter.
We were confident and based our
opinion on 20 years of field
experience in grooming up to
that time. Experience and
participation in your industry
bolsters your intuition, and
along with some patience time
proved us right.
At one time pet groomers could
only go to pet retail trade
shows. There were few or no
grooming trade shows like today.
Grooming competitions served as
entertainment for non-groomers
at the retail shows. They were
exciting and we remember the
excitement and flash bulbs going
off adding to the glitz of these
events.
One good way to learn who
groomers are is to attend a
grooming trade show. We strongly
urge you to support them. What
career seeker wouldn’t be
excited to attend their first
grooming show? It like
Disneyland for kids. Everyone
benefits from the educational
opportunities can keep you busy
through an entire weekend. Our
trade shows have increased the
respect of the retail sector for
pet grooming.
Respect is important because the
industry didn’t have anywhere
near the amount of respect it
does today just a few decades
ago. In the 1960s Madeline Ogle
would remind her contacts in the
retail sector of the importance
of pet grooming to their retail
sales. She would ask, “How many
pet owners would own dogs and
cats if they had to groom their
pets? Doesn’t a reduction in pet
ownership mean a likewise
reduction in retail sales?” She
was right then, and now. Pet
grooming continues to bolster
retail sales growth. Today’s pet
superstores add grooming
departments to increase foot
traffic through their retail
displays, and the result is
growth of retail sales.
Diversity
of the Industry
Today many pet groomers don’t understand that
pet superstores have been a boon to career
seekers, and to the industry. A large sector
of contemporary American consumers began to
view grooming services as a more respectable
service when they saw the corporate stores add
grooming departments.
It’s positive for the public to see a growing
number of pet grooming signs in commercial
strip centers or “box stores.” It verifies the
public’s perception of grooming as a
traditional purchase they should consider, and
not groom pets themselves.
More important to you as a career seeker may
be the fact that adding grooming to pet
superstores opened new career paths. Today
most of the superstores offer grooming
training options. Experienced grooming
managers can earn some of the best wages and
benefits in the grooming industry. The lack of
benefits offered by many independents is a
real detriment to thousands of career seekers.
The Internet has played the most important
role in recruiting people into the grooming
industry. In fact, the Internet is vital to
groomer recruitment. The majority of career
seekers taking PetGroomer.com surveys
indicated that the Internet was their primary
source of grooming career information.
It makes sense because you must understand
that even today there are states without a
single grooming school, and even populous
states have as few as two or three schools.
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